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tv   State of the Union  CNN  November 3, 2013 9:00am-10:01am PST

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sources." if you missed any of today's program, you can find it on itunes. join us next sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. "state of the union with candy crowley" begins right now. the week in numbers -- six. the number of americans said to have signed up for obama care on day one. 42, the president's approval rating. today, barack obama's downturn. the beginning of his lame duck era,or a temporary slump? >> come january 1st, and thereafter when real people regardless of politics are getting better services and better benefits and more security, this is going to be a different story. >> other numbers -- 22, the percentage of americans with a favorable view of republicans. after the government shutdown, after the obama care rollout, we assess the political landscape with republican senator kelly ayotte. 365, the number of days until the 2014 midterm elections.
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and -- >> we're fired up! >> we have a better way. >> romney versus obama, been there, done that, or maybe not? have you heard the one about vice president clinton or vice president christie in our political panel a new read on a book revealing backstage imfreezing in the 2012 campaign. this is "state of the union." good morning from washington, i'm candy crowley. we will speak with senator kelly ayotte in a moment. first, authorities have charged the man who opened fire at l.a.x. airport with two felonies including the murder of a federal officer. witnesses say the gunman, 23-year-old paul anthony ciancia, killed 39-year-old gerardo hernandez. the first tsa officer killed in the line of duty in the agency's history. two additional agents were wounded. joining me from austin, texas, is the chairman of the house homeland security committee, michael mccall. congressman, thank you very much for joining us. i think in the aftermath of
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this, the question i hear most often is, why did he do this. what do you know about that? i know you've been able to see some of the notes he wrote. what do you think the motivation was here? >> i think mental illness again, like the navy yard shooter that we saw. the suicide note i read talks a lot about killing tsa agents. he said, "if i just kill one, my mission is accomplished." and unfortunately, he did do that the other day. the other thing he wanted to talk about is how easy it is to bring a gun into an airport and do something like he did. my sympathies go out to the hernandez family and the other victims. this tragic day -- as you mentioned, he's the first tsa agent, officer to be killed in the line of duty. >> it's our understanding that much of the literature he had on
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him was anti-government, anti-tsa. you're telling me there was also -- that his intent was suicide after he did damage? >> well, it's clearly one of the notes that reads, you know, "i'm going to go kill people, and i don't want to kill civilians." with the idea that he's going to die at the end of this. the other thing that i think was equally as tragic is that his family in new jersey had notified new jersey local authorities who then in turn notified the local l.a. police who had visited the suspect's home the morning of the shooting and missed him by literally probably 45 minutes. so this is how we typically stop things is through good intelligence. and if family members or friends see a loved one who has -- is exhibiting signs of mental illness, that does -- and suicidal tendencies which he did
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describe in his e-mails to his family members, then i think it's incumbent upon the family members and friends to call this to local authorities. they actually did that in this case. and unfortunately, really missed the suspect by a matter of minutes. >> right. when you look at what happened, at least insofar as we know the logistics of it, we know that this suspect was able to take a lot of ammunition and his weapon down a corridor where there were no armed police officers at that point. the tsa obviously is unarmed. we also know that los angeles had moved to roving patrols throughout the airport as opposed to having one armed guard at a security checkpoint. do you see anything worth rethinking now? >> i talked to the director just pistol today.
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we talked about the reality of airports. every airport is different. but the coordination with local police is always key because tsa officers are not armed. the local police provide the perimeter security that's more of a soft target outside the checkpoints. so what we want to do is conduct -- i want to work with the director of tsa to look at how we coordinating with the locals at the airports, the security, police officers, to see if there's something we can do better or differently. i will commend the officers, though, for a very quick and effective response. as you point out, he had multiple rounds that could have killed so many more people. we were fortunate that did not happen, but it was unfortunate that an officer was killed. >> i've seen reports recently that the suspect entered the exit at the security point. in other words, the guard that you kind of walk by as you're departing an airport and coming out of where the actual gates
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are. is that your understanding? and that place has always struck me as kind of an open hole. >> yeah. it's confusing in the accounts i read. he shot the tsa officer who was checking documents, went up an escalator, came back down, shot him again. went through the security point. at that standpoint. i think it's important that we have the local law enforcement really at different points at the airport to protect not only the perimeter but also things that could happen through the security checkpoint. the other thing that's important, there are teams out there, they're called viper teams. and what they are, the tsa runs essentially detection and deterrent teams. i know in talking to director pistol, he wants to further idlize teams at airports to make
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-- utilize teams at airports to make sure the american people and public are safe when they go to our airports. i think that with the better coordination of local law enforcement should help tremendously. however, having said that, you really -- it's difficult to stop these types of attacks. anybody can show up, as we saw in the navy yard with the shotgun, in this case with the semiautomatic, and you know, it's like a shopping mall outside the perimeter almost an open shopping mall. it's difficult to protect. these viper teams, i think, with local law enforcement, can provide that needed security. we are going to be reviewing this along with the director of the tsa. >> great. congressman michael mccall, thank you for joining us this morning. i appreciate your input. >> thank you. now, on to the next subject -- remember when the president said this -- >> this is the most transparent administration in history. >> our next guest is going to disagree with. that she wrote a letter to the
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state department asking to interview survivors of the attack that killed ambassador chris stephens and three other americans in benghazi years ago. the administration refused saying in part because the survivors are potential witnesses in the terrorism prosecution and that disclosure of their identities account put their lives at increased risk. and hhs secretary, kathleen sebelius, is refusing to answer questions including specifically the number of people who have enrolled in new hampshire's health care exchange so far. joining me from her home state of new hampshire, senator kelly ayotte. thank you so much, senator, for joining us. >> good morning, candy. thank you. >> good morning. there is a -- a movement by senator lindsey graham to black all of the president's nominees until survivors of the benghazi attack are allowed to come and testify to various committees. are you on board with that
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tactic? >> well, candy, we've written several times, not only secretary kerry, but the president asking the survivors be made available to congress to get to the bottom of this. i understand we've been brushed off many times. i think that senator graham is going to be speaking to the administration about this, trying to cooperatively address this issue. it's not acceptable that they've not been made available. to say that there's an ongoing investigation in terrorism, that would preclude oversight by the congress in any terrorism case including 9/11. i think there are ways we can work together and make sure that we're protecting the sensitive nature of this. but to not get to the bottom of this isn't acceptable. we keep getting brushed off. >> to the question, are you willing as senator graham is, to block nominees until those witnesses are produced on capitol hill? >> candy, i can't have a hold on
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any witnesses now. i'm hoping we can work this out with the administration. i assume that republicans will come together because it's been so many -- so long, over a year, without answers. and being -- basic access to survivors who were there that, by the way, it can't just be that the executive branch gets this access. many were interviewed in connection with the arb report but haven't been made available to congress. i will evaluate whatever means we need to do to get that information. but i hope we can work this out cooperatively. and i think we should be able to. it's been too long, and we've been brushed off for too long. >> i'm going to take that as a maybe yes, maybe no, and move on to something that jay carney said in response to this. >> the fact is we have been enormously cooperative and gone to extraordinary efforts to work with seven different, seven different congressional committees investigating what happened before, during, and after the benghazi attacks. including testimony of 13 different congressional hearings
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and participation in 40 staff briefings, and the provision of over 25,000 pages of documents. >> is the administration correct in what is -- >> candy? >> go ahead. >> i'll tell you right now. i mean, jay carney, well over a week, well after that had said this was not preplanned or premeditated, still blamed this on the video. so we still don't have answers why that information came out the way it did and the misrepresentations were made to the american people. but there's much information that hasn't come forward including why were security requests denied. provided access to these survivors. we've asked for months in trying to work cooperatively with the administration. what he said is not the case. it can't be that the executive branch hopes this goes away. the american people and victims deserve to know the truth. >> moving on it health care and the president's affordable care act. it seems to me that republicans
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at this point take one of two positions. all right, this is going to go into effect january 1, let's see where this is or where it will be derailed. where are you on the spectrum? >> well, candy, i can tell you this is a mess. you've seen not only the problems with the website. but it's much deeper than the website including so many americans that are getting cancelation notices including stories from people in new hampshire rising premium costs as a result of obama care. so it's much deeper than the website. where i am on this is -- you know, i was one of the republicans who said, called out members of my own party on the shutdown strategy to defund obama care because i didn't think it was the effective -- i didn't think it was good for the country. i'm calling on the president now to say let's have a time-out on this, mr. president. you call a time-out on this. convene a group of bipartisan leaders to address health care
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concerns in this country because this is not working. i'm hearing it from my constituents, and let's do this right, as opposed to the way this was passed in the first instance. >> i want to play for you something the president said wednesday in boston about the opposition to his affordable care act. >> unfortunately, there are others who are so locked in to the politics of this thing that they won't lift a finger to help their own people. if they put as much energy into making this law work as they do in attacking the law, americans would be better off. [ applause ] >> he is saying in a nuanced way what other democrats are saying right out there which is that you all would rather defeat the president and obama care than help your constituents. have you helped your constituents that call to your office looking for help? and do you think republicans are vulnerable on this, that they have tried so hard and so many
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times to derail it that now the criticism looks like nothing but politic politics? >> well, my constituents are writing me. but how can i help them when it's a situation of they're getting cancelation notices because of the way that obama care is drafted. when they can't access the website because it's such a mess. so absolutely i want to help my constituents. but again, i would say to the president, why doesn't he call a time-out on this, understanding that it's not working right now? this was passed on a party-line basis. why not convene a group to see how we can work together, issues like the 29-hour workweek, issues like people being denied their current plans. issues like rising health care costs, all of which are -- unfortunately i'm hearing the opposite from my constituents. i want to help, but obviously the administration in the way this is being rolled out, it's a mess. it's time to call a time-out. >> let me move you to some new polling we saw this week.
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we talked about the president's numbers in our open. i want to remind you of the polling of the opinion of the republican party. positive, 22%, negative 53%. what does that tell you about the midterm elections a year from today with the republican party at such -- held in such low esteem by voters? >> candy, what i think it tells you is that the american people from the president -- obviously the president's poll numbers aren't doing well either, they want leadership. they want people to get things done. they didn't appreciate the government shutdown. i didn't support it. now here we are with obama care again. they want problems to be solved. i think they will award people who are trying to work to solve problems for this country. it's a long way until the 2014 election. but i guarantee that obama care is going to be one of the primary issues on it. that's why i say let's work
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together because there are real issues that need to be addressed with our health care system. certainly this is not the answer. >> in an election year with a 22% approval rating for the party -- and by the way, a low approval rating for congress in general, it is not a great place to start, and it's clear that what democrats want to campaign on is that republicans are blocking everything that we want to do, and what republicans want top campaign on is obama care is a disaster, and it's not going to work. is that an atmosphere in which you can get anything done? >> i think we owe it to the american people to get things done. one thing i took from the shutdown situation, had a chance to work with a bipartisan group of senators, is that i think the american people are rightly frustrated with both sides of the aisle. they're -- congress has a low approval rating because obviously we're not getting basic things done like a plan for funding the government.
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right now we're in the budget negotiations. we've got to get the government funded for the year and deal with basic oversight issues with government. that's what it's about, and it's, frankly, a problem for both parties. >> senator, little time left, but i need to ask you -- recently, senator reid had said that he would like to see ted cruz run for president, selfishly, and be on the ticket because he thought it would be the end of the republican party. do you agree? >> well, i think that obviously 2016's a couple years away. i think that we'll have a number of candidates for president. as you know, many will come to new hampshire. i think that the republican party will carefully vet those candidates. my constituents in new hampshire, i know, will, and then they'll decide. but harry reid's not going to decide who our nominee is. there's a number of excellent candidates out there including governors. >> senator kelly ayotte, i'll take that as not quite a yes and not quite a no.
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we appreciate you joining us and hope you join us again. >> thank you. coming up, hhs secretary sebelius takes the blame for the botched obama care rollout as republicans look to ensnare the president for its failures next. i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. healthcare starting under $40 a month. i got education benefits. i work at walmart. i'm a pharmacist. sales associate. i manage produce. i work in logistics. there's more to walmart than you think. vo: opportunity. that's the real walmart. an important message for americans eligible
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to work for you at no charge. if you have doubts that a congressional hearing about health care could be dramatic, you clearly missed this -- >> madam secretary, i'd like you to answer for the record -- >> you clearly -- whatever. >> madam secretary -- >> secretary kathleen subsidies e sebelius lost her cool -- kathleen sebelius lost her cool at times after taking fire over the failed launch of obama's health care plan. now how much time does the president have to fix the problem before his legacy is in doubt? what's better than zero heartburn?
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unisom sleeptabs help you fall asleep 33% faster and wake refreshed. unisom. a stressful day deserves a restful night. joining me around the table, david maron, an obama biographer and mira tamdon also a former advisor to kathleen sebelius and cnn "crossfire" co-host, newt gingrich. and congrats on your new book, by the way, "breakout." run, do not
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walk to your bookstore and u.s. senator from arkansas lost her seat in 2010 partly because of her support for the president's health care legislation. i want to start with you. that is that we're seeing democrats get increasingly worried. i want to look at a couple headline where is democrats had and vented to obama officials. senator durbin said people are anxious and jeff merkley said i don't think there's confidence by anyone in the room. is there any way for democrats to back up and insulate themselves from what might be or might not be backlash from the polls next year? >> i think they have plenty of time and i do not think that's necessary. i got hit hard coming home to arkansas for voting for part d of bush's medicare. the democrats hit merity hard then. i think i was one of 11 or 12 senators who voted with the
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president. i worked with the administration. we did our dog and pony shows with cms and hss folks and arkansas ended up being the top ten states for enroll lees for the prescription plans. it's hard to envision a health care plan for seniors without a prescription drug. it hard for us to see wing able to put our economy right if we continue to spend the money we do on health care, the percentage of our gdp and getting the same results we are. we have to start looking at how we'll make this thing work and come together and figure that out and i think that's what they are doing with the add minute -- administration. they heard what there is out there and will ramp up. those are technical things that can get fixed and they will. >> you know, i wanted to see if something sounded familiar. this is a little bit of a national republican editorial campaign committee video that came out. it an ad against prior --
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actually where they hit him pretty hard on you're too close to obama, you're really a liberal and they focus on health care. that has got to be at some level worrisome for someone in arkansas. >> well, it is, just certainly because arkansas has become very red and there's a problem there in that a lot of people, i think, they have -- have the other side, the republicans have really preyed on the arkansas people to create that distrust with obama but, you know, it's not anything that he he can't rise above and not anything as we move forward in the next six months of enrollment we won't be able to see. there was a man in arkansas recently, a republican actually able to go to the marketplace and get his health care, better coverage from his same blue cross package for 13, $13,000 less. so i mean, there -- there are
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people out there finding it. it just takes time. >> it does that. i want to bring in the rest of the group and turn this in general to where the president's poll numbers are now. 4 2% not an all-time low but getting down there. to the opening question, is this a slump or beginning of the lame duck period? >> well, of course it's the lame duck period but he can recover. it's feelings on the part of the le left, the disaster of the lay t layout, but this super secret state of the nsa and converges to make it difficult for him. but the truth still is he's known forever that he was going to be defined by this health care plan. and he still has a chance to recover if it comes out okay in the next six months.
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>> the rub -- >> the -- >> the rollout can't be flekted when it happens. >> there is a piece quoting him after every meeting this is well and good but if healthcare.gov doesn't work, we're wasted. >> everybody is frustrated the website doesn't work. hopefully it will work by the end of november. we should recognize there are people around the country and states that have signed up. 150,000 people around the country. people with leading on the extension. there are people benefits from the law now. it is inexcusable that the website isn't working. we can work on it. >> newt, is it the website, it's terrible -- >> there are pieces people did not know even existed.
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we did a "crossfire," the other night and talked about if you're 64 and there are two of you and you each earn $34,000 a year, if you get married, you have a $10,000 hit in the drop in what happens to insurance -- >> because of combined income. >> $10,000 for a couple earning $60,000. at anti-marriage and pro-divorce provision. i don't think anybody knew it was in there. i think the key question from the standpoint of president obama is if they can get the website fixed and sooner or later with enough money they will, do enough young people sign up or is what we're seeing happen, the young people available are going into medicaid expansion and the pool is shrinking and in which case the danger is the obama care pool becomes a high-risk pool with very -- >> there are plenty of young people who fit in above the medicare and who would go into
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the insurance exchange. this is an important issue newt is raising. it's something we have to monitor but looks like young people are very interested in the exchanges, so -- >> go ahead. >> i was going to say, what elected officials heard -- and i'm sure yo did, too, we want what you got. that's basically what we're trying to do here. the 8 million federal employees in the federal plan are the reason why members of congress could get a private insurance package that was good coverage at a reasonable cost because we were pooled with the other 8 million federal employees. so creating these pools -- when the young people get in there, we got to get them in there and create the competitiveness that happens when you pull people like that. >> hope and change that it will play out next year. i want to thank you for coming. good to see you again. >> thank you. when we come back, we want to talk about joe biden, hillary clinton and chris christie, part of secrets in the
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2012 campaign next.
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we are back with david, mira newt gingrich. -- mira and newt gingrich. a book that went on in 2012. and a big headline is the administration or campaign focus grouped what it would be like to have hillary clinton on the ticket, sort of did some quiet polling and the president didn't know anything about it. is there any doubt in your minds that right now hillary clinton reading that is thinking wow, dodged a bullet here? in the sense of you look at the president's poll numbers right now, do you want to be joe biden or hillary clinton? >> you know, i have to say just reading everything i've read about it, i feel a little bad for joe biden. he's done a great job and been
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extremely loyal to the president and a great campaigner. i think it was disservice to test the question but seems it was never taken seriously from everything they say. >> i want to reinforce and say there is, i believe, no possibility that obama would have brought in hillary clinton because bill would come with her. [ laughter ] >> i think -- >> and the book by the way, is revealing about that. >> if you said you have to be e -- to be re-legislated, but bill clinton is going to be next to you for four years, he would say it's not worth it. i don't need this level of pain. >> i completely agree with that. i think they are great reporters, but this is just to get people talking about it on shows like this. there is no chance of this happening at all. >> and in fact -- >> it's interesting that they polled, though, it is and maybe a little bit stupid of them to have done that. >> sort of a sign of how nervous they were in 2011 as they look at the numbers saying what can we do because the economy was not good. >> the president came back from
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the poll numbers, right? >> he did -- >> he came back from those poll numbers and can come back from these poll numbers. >> when sources try to push one candidate or another, i want to read you something chuck schumer was in iowa last night and one one of the things he said was -- >> run, hillary, run! if you run, we'll win, and we'll run, hilary run if you win we'll all win. 2016 is hillary's time, and the nation will be all the better for it. the book about oh, maybe they replace him, maybe they didn't which i'm sure he understands he's a big boy and gets how this goes. we had a steady stream of people going, hey, hillary, go. who have -- they've known joe biden forever. what is the message here to him? >> the message is that if hillary wants to run, he won't run and he knows that and that she has a better chance of winning than he does. but, you know, everything points to the direction of her running but history and life often gets in the way of what people think will happen. >> as in 2008? >> yes. >> right.
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what do you think about -- >> first of all, i thought up until april of 2008 that she was going to be the nominee, so i'm probably the worst possible person to ask. i think that if she decides to run, she probably has the nomination almost without competition because it's going to be so hard to mount a campaign against her. i also think that depending on what the next few years are like, she could have a much harder general election than people think because she'll be the candidate of it. chirstie won't run for president to keep washington the way it -- christie won't run for president to keep washington the way it is. the last poll showed 80% of the country think the country is broken. you can't be around since 1992 and show up and say i'm the real candidate of change. >> although, ronald reagan ran in the second term as an outside, so could she pull it off? >> i work for hillary, so i'm a
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partisan for her, for sure. i do think you're seeing a grounds level of support for her. chris christie and his biggest opposition is from republicans. whether he can make it through the primary is a big question. we see that mitt romney moved far right and hurt him in the general. >> so stick around because we'll talk more about chris christie in this book. more on the bad blood during the 2012 campaign when we come back. mitt romney's campaign named when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely.
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we're back with david, mira and newt gingrich. to the republican side of the equation in this book "double down" which is basically the new game change from 2012, the relationship between mitt romney and chris christie is fascinating to me because there is this admiration of a guy fighting on the part of mitt room knee and disgust because he was late all the time and worried about things in his background, ultimately, mitt romney didn't decide for chris christie. the question is, why does this stuff get leaked right now, and whether you think it hurts chris christie at this point, should he be a 2016 candidate? >> it's obvious. the romney people hit christie and those feelings eliminated he helped obama get reelected. i think it's nothing more than trying to undo christi as part of revenge in a sense.
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>> when you look at it, it also reveals sort of not really very nice side of mitt romney and some of the little things he felt about chris christie. >> first of all, no presidential nominee picks somebody who will overshadow them. chris christie next to romney, romney would shrink and christie would blossom. as a freshman governor, probably wasn't the right time anyway. it's hard to think this controlled person in the business community will pick this wild prosecutor with a huge body and a huge ego and huge expansive personality and i suspect -- i'd also say in
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defense of christie, if your state gets hit by something like sandy. you love the person that helps you. the idea he was calculating carefully, i think he was emotionally engaged in what happened to the jersey shore and genuinely grateful and to not have a spirit of understanding that is petty. >> it's surprising that someone decided to dump this vetting file. >> that connections -- >> it has all kinds of -- and he should defend himself. it has all kinds of allegations and kind of a horrible thing and people put their trust in the vetters and for someone a year late tore leak it is a horrible thing to do but will create opponents for chris christie, i think it's damaging to chris christie this happened and unfortunate someone hated him so much to do something -- >> what i read of it so far really says more about romney than christie. romney had a narrow perspective
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someone running with him should look like, almost getting into the detroit athletic club, whether christie could qualify. >> there was a clubbing feel. -- a clubby feel to it in the way they approached christie. >> the actual names they gave the vice presidential candidates is ridiculous. the fact you give rubio -- >> the campaign when it comes out -- >> let's divide the past and future. if christie decides he wants to run for president. this is nothing. i mean, running for president is the toughest thing -- >> right, it's nothing compared to what else will come. >> i presume he will ignore. cruz to a huge victory tuesday and wave good-bye to the romney team and not worry about it. it does tell you there was a level of pettiness and a level
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of insularity of being hidden away from the real world that sort of permeated the romney team. >> i got to ask you because this not all of this book has come out yet, newt. like, were you going to appear in this? i imagine you are. your relationship with romney? >> we had lunch with one of the authors and talked at length and it's part of the process. if you are going to be in the game at that level, you have to recognize this is how america does these things. >> it is. we have to go back through whatever happened. how will it describe newt gingrich's relationship to mitt romney? >> probably close to non-existent. we fought a very hard fight. i was clear about what i thought about his tactics. i think in the absence of an enormous financial advantage, he wouldn't have been nominee. he ended up in the end as we said he would. he didn't have personality and the ability to take on a guy of the caliber of barack obama and
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win the campaign. >> not a fan. president obama campaigns with terry mcauliffe in virginia. president clinton is already betting on the democrat. >> i make you a prediction. if you do what you should do, he will win. and a year from now he'll be so popular half will wonder what in the wide world they were thinking about. aretirement plan. i started part-time, now i'm a manager. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. healthcare starting under $40 a month. i got education benefits. i work at walmart. i'm a pharmacist. sales associate. i manage produce. i work in logistics. there's more to walmart than you think. vo: opportunity. that's the real walmart. store and essentially they just get sold something. we provide the exact individualization that
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i'll take a photo so that you can see what goes on during the commercial break. you won't believe it. dad! dad! katy perry is coming to town. can we get tickets, pleeeeease??? tickets? hmm, sure. how many? well, there's hannah, maddie, jen, sara m., sara b., sa -- whoa, whoa. hold on. (under his breath) here it comes... we can't forget about your older sister! thank you, thank you, thank you! seriously? what? i get 2x the thankyou points on each ticket. can i come? yep. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn 2x the points on entertainment and dining out, with no annual fee. to apply, go to citi.com/thankyoucards medicare open enrollment. of year again. time to compare plans and costs.
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we are back with david, nira, and new gingrich. we have virginia could go all blue. all democrat next tuesday. we've had this race between
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terry mcauliffe also known as friend of bill against a conservative republican cuccinelli. speaker gingrich, from what we can tell, cuccinelli, the republican, has always been behind. we think it will be a blowout victory for chris christie. let's start with virginia. is it an indictment of the republican party? how are we to read cuccinelli's -- if cuccinelli loses? >> it's not an indictment of the republican party. we'll have christie win by 20 points plus. >> is it an indictment on part of the republican party? >> this is a question about the campaign that was run in virginia and i think that if you don't run an aggressive campaign very early, you don't define yourself very early, you let your opponent define you and if you have mcauliffe's ability to raise money. this is the clinton machine brought it bear. and i think they are out advertising this week, something like 25-1. >> they played the female card on the democratic side
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much like they did with obama's victory in virginia. >> terry has run a race on progressive issues. he's gone up against nra and been out for medicaid expansion. he's actually campaigning a little bit on the affordable care act itself through medicaid expansion but he's also been business friendly and pragmatic. he's gotten a lot of republicans to endorse him. this is an indictment of the tea party and people that shut down the government have been behind ken cuccinelli and it's a failure in a state that should be purple is turning blue. >> as they say in thor hae er r vernacular, who'd of thunk it? terry mcauliffe, governor of virginia. cuccinelli has been giving mcauliffe a lot of issues. mcauliffe has actually learned and become a better candidate than anyone thought he would be and he has magic of bill clinton in this
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case. and that's still there. and hillary clinton campaigned for him as well. helping with the woman's vote as well. >> republicans downtown have as deep a bench. >> one of the great challenges for '16, two of the most popular politicians today are bill and hillary clinton. it's a fact, and it's something that republicans have to think about strategically. >> her numbers are so high. >> the fact that chris christie will win in new jersey, any larger implications for republican party in that? >> people want change. they want effective implementable change. most of the republican governors are in good shape. it's washington that's a total mess. >> the larger question is whether the republican party will accept one like christie. >> you have to get through the primaries as you know. thank you guys so much for coming today. thank you all for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley in washington. head to cnn.com/sotu for analysis and extras. and don't forget instagram and if you missed any part of today's show,
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go to itunes and search "state of the union." "fareed zakaria gps" is next. >> this is "gps." welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. we have great show for you today. we'll start with nsa spying and uproar it caused in europe especially. germany's former defense minister will explain what is going on there. and then the former nsa director will help us understand what america's spies are really doing around the world. also, michael bloomberg called the mayor of the world. with the election of his successor on hand, what lessons does bloomberg have to share with us? one of them, cities need rich people. he'll explain. and the latest weapon against bad guys.